Self-Assembling Micro-Robots Created

If the thought of swarms of self-assembling micro-robots that are just 0.5mm (500 micron) in diameter is not enough to convince you that the robot apocalypse is back on, then what will?

Extreme Tech reports on work by physicists at the U.S. Argonne National Laboratory into manipulating these micro-robots.

Formed out of minuscule ferromagnetic particles that float freely in a sandwich of water and oil, these micro-robots (microbots? nanobots?) are controlled with magnets. With the application of an alternating magnetic field that’s perpendicular to the immiscible mixture, the micro-particles assemble into spiked circles called asters, after the aster flower. Then, with a magnetic field that is parallel to the surface, the movements of these microbots can be controlled.

As the report says, these micro-robots could be used to deliver things like anti-cancer drugs in a highly targeted fashion, but they could be used to make things.

It is not a huge logical leap, in other words, to imagine a huge vat of micro-robots that are tasked with creating silicon chips or plastic cups — or just about anything, really.

Now, it’s important to remember that self-assembling doesn’t imply self-awareness or the ability to operate independently — but yes, if we do one day have production lines that entirely staffed by self-assembling nanobots, it does mean that a computer could theoretically take charge and begin building more computers like itself…

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